Area Collection Manager - Digital Flows - Kolkata

Role overview

This position is responsible for overseeing regional collections for the digital small-ticket portfolio. The role focuses on improving recovery outcomes, managing delinquent accounts efficiently, coordinating with internal and external collection partners, and ensuring that all activity stays aligned with company policy and regulatory requirements.

Business and organization details

Business: Financial Services

Unit: Aditya Birla Finance Ltd.

Location: Mumbai

Function: Risk Management & Compliance

Department: Risk & Legal & Collections

Designation: ACM (Digital/STSL/M Lap)

Manager designation: RCM

Date of JD update: 20 Jan 2023

Purpose of the role

The objective of this job is to lead collections at a regional level and build a high-performing, efficient collections team that supports ECL and NCL targets. The incumbent will also coordinate with internal teams and outside agencies while maintaining compliance with internal controls and applicable regulations.

Scope and operating context

The digital book is described as a small-ticket, higher-bounce portfolio because of the segment structure and borrower profile. The role covers ECL management for Stage 1 and Stage 2 accounts, with responsibility for supporting Stage 3 provisioning across the entire zone. It requires strong experience in handling a zone or region within debt management and the ability to design and implement effective collections strategies, especially for small-ticket accounts.

Aditya Birla Finance Limited is a lending subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Limited and is registered with RBI as a systematically important, deposit-free NBFC. The business serves retail, HNI, MSME, mid-sized and large corporate customers through a wide range of secured and unsecured lending products.

Collections in this context is used to track customer-level and portfolio-level exposure, identify early warning indicators of stress, reduce NPAs, and recover overdue amounts from customers who are in genuine financial difficulty as well as those who have deliberately defaulted. The digital small-ticket segment mainly consists of digitally sourced accounts with ticket sizes between 10,000 and 5,00,000, and this role is central to improving profitability by managing delinquent accounts effectively across the zone.

Key responsibilities

The position owns field collections for customers in the region, primarily through an agency-led model for collection flows. It requires a solid understanding of small-ticket lending, delinquency management, and the operational challenges of debt recovery in this segment.

• Track delinquency closely, control portfolio risk, and reduce ECL across the assigned book.
• Improve resolution rates to support better recovery performance and lower credit losses.
• Monitor collection expenses carefully and keep cost-to-collect under control.
• Review delinquent accounts on a daily basis and conduct regular performance checks.
• Watch portfolio performance at location and sub-product level within the digital business.
• Work with defaulting borrowers to identify practical recovery options.
• Create and maintain MIS reports that show trends, risk pockets, performance gaps, and required actions for the collections team.
• Share regular updates with management and other stakeholders such as Sales, Risk, and Policy teams on delinquency patterns, negative profiles, non-starters, skips, fraud cases, and related issues.
• Maintain strong control over the overdue and delinquent portfolio.
• Manage collection agencies to ensure the collections process runs efficiently.
• Support the selection of external agencies and vendor partners.
• Measure agency output against agreed targets and performance standards.
• Ensure external partners are appropriately supervised so that overdue dues are recovered in a timely manner.
• Keep all collections documentation aligned with internal standards and regulatory expectations.
• Address customer complaints related to collections and work toward a fair resolution for both the customer and the business.
• Plan and execute periodic audits of collection teams to confirm policy and compliance adherence.
• Coordinate with legal teams and senior leadership on escalated matters where regulatory compliance is important.
• Guide, coach, and supervise the team to ensure effective performance.
• Coordinate functional and behavioral training for team members with HR support.
• Take part in talent development and people initiatives to build a strong pipeline and an engaged team.

Direct report information

The direct report listed for this position is a Collections Manager. That role manages collections at a location level, typically covering a metro, state capital, or a cluster of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, and works with defaulting borrowers to create suitable recovery solutions while ensuring compliance with internal and external requirements.

Relationships

• National Collections Manager / Area Collections Managers: Regular coordination for portfolio updates and alignment on strategy and execution.
• Credit / Policy teams: Weekly engagement for case updates, bounce information, MIS, and policy changes.
• Collections Strategy team: Periodic interaction for market intelligence, feedback, cost, ECL, and performance inputs.
• Legal team: As needed for litigation support in delinquent cases.
• Collections agencies and vendor partners: Regular discussions, reviews, field visits, case updates, and exception reporting.
• Customers: Contact as needed for escalations and follow-ups.

Additional information

Poornata position number: Not specified

Reports to Poornata position number: Not specified

Poornata position title: ACM (Digital/STSL/M Lap)

Reports to position title: RCM

Openings: Not specified

JD sign-off: The hard copy is meant to be signed and stored in the organizational record, with fields for the job holder, reporting manager, name, and date of entry/approval.